Cheapskates, sale flooders and others...

[dotNetFreak]

So back to being an exclusive member, does much business get done in the exclusive section? Do people want as big an audience as possible for their sales, so that everything ends up in the normal threads anyway?

Nothing happens in the "Exclusive" section...

The "Exclusive" account is more about giving something back, an appreciation to Alan for the hardwork he puts in providing the forums, rather than the benefits IMHO.

 

[Brassneck]

According to Alexa (if you can believe it) - for traffic Acorn is ranked about the 600th most popular UK site. See http://www.alexa.com/search?q=acorndomains.co.uk&r=home_home&p=bigtop. Picking a random well know brand - www.rac.co.uk was ranked about 1,000. Of course it can be improved, but clearly some find it useful. And, that traffic only exists because of the efforts of members.

I'm not against any kind of standard membership fees, however surely Admin ought to be able to monetise that sort of activity? If he isn't already, I am sure there are plenty of marketing experts on here who can help.

At the end of the day, without its members Acorn would be nothing.

 

[Admin]

Interesting read.

I appreciate those of you who do upgrade to Exclusive which really is a "thank you" to me for the site and goes towards hosting etc. I make a bit too from paid ads and Adsense but it's not huge.

I have never been in this for the money but of course I'd be silly not to want to make money from something that takes so much of my time (and plenty of sleepless nights / rows with my partner over the years).

There are different ways to look at it but I don't look down on anyone for using the forum a lot to try to sell their domains. It's probably worse seeing people using it a little and then selling 6 figure domains here without even a thank you!

When I have tried to monetise the forum with mandatory subscriptions, such as asking £5 to post a domain for auction, a few people are happy to pay but most it seems are not to the auctions died off pretty quickly.

I take pride in the site which is rewarding in itself... and am glad to see when people profit from it especially in these more difficult times. We are a community and that's how I think of it rather than a website I can charge people for.

I'll look at all your inputs but I don't plan to make the sales forums pay per post. I'll see how it goes with my new email subscription list idea, as I can make from that if domains sell. I'm looking how I can push the list to get subscribers well away from Acorn as people here can already sell to each other.

I had thought about marketing this email subscription to all 10,000 plus members with a one-off email. I would use a tool that would also tell me if each members email address is still valid as I know many will be dead by now.

In summary it's a tricky one for me but I don't think mandatory charges is the way to go.

Admin

 

[Whibs]

At the end of the day, without its members Acorn would be nothing.

Yes but with out Acorn many of us would be nothing.

 

[Admin]

Yes but with out Acorn many of us would be nothing.

Like!

Admin

 

[Retired_member41]

Yes but with out Acorn many of us would be nothing.

I thought you were only new here whibbs? I agree though acorns a great place.

I know this is an old classic I and Anthony say to lots of people as a regular joke, so forgive me again.....

But why dont all the exclusive users who have second and third bogus member accounts make those exclusive too! As many of you know. That would raise a few bob instantly

 

[Whibs]

I thought you were only new here whibbs? I agree though acorns a great place.

I know this is an old classic I and Anthony say to lots of people as a regular joke, so forgive me again.....

But why dont all the exclusive users who have second and third bogus member accounts make those exclusive too! As many of you know. That would raise a few bob instantly

Yep new member but been around for a while;-) What is the advantage of having more than one account?

 

[Admin]

Forum rules are you are not allowed to have more than one account.

Admin

 

[domainseller200]

Why?

Did you read what I said Amen to ?

 

[Brassneck]

Did you read what I said Amen to ?

Yes - but I think there was more than one point there. From my reading of the comment, one point was about the demise of minisites, and the second implied that only really commercially viable domains are likely to sell. Which were you pleased about or is it both?

Thanks

Stephen.

 

[domainseller200]

Yes - but I think there was more than one point there. From my reading of the comment, one point was about the demise of minisites, and the second implied that only really commercially viable domains are likely to sell. Which were you pleased about or is it both?

Thanks

Stephen.

I wasn't pleased about either - I was agreeing with the both statements which is exactly how I see it also.

 

[SF]

What a stupid thread..............

 

[binny]

Just found another 5 posters, totalling 516 sales posts (lowest was 57) and only 1 out of 5 has upgraded to EXCLUSIVE.

Come on, folks, it's REALLY not rocket science!

BTW, here's the methodology I used:

1) Head over to the Advanced Search form http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/search.php

2) Change the "Find Posts from" pulldown in the LH column to "A year ago" from "Any Date"

3) Enter the exact user name under "User Name"

4) Change "Find Posts by User" pulldown under the username box to "Find Threads Started by User"

5) Select "UK Only Domains for Sale" in the "Search in Forum(s)" section, and make sure "also search in child forums" box is ticked

6) Hit the "Search Now" button. This gives you the count of all sales threads that user posted in any UK domain-related sales forum

7) Repeat as above, but change the "Search in Forum(s)" section to "Search All Open Forums". This gives you the total count of all threads - sales & discussions - that user posted anywhere in the forums.

Sorry Edwin but thats a helluva lot of effort for someone who doesn't want to skim over some sales posts on a couple of 'new posts' pages.

 

[Whibs]

Sorry Edwin but that's a helluva lot of effort for someone who doesn't want to skim over some sales posts on a couple of 'new posts' pages.

Of course it is, how else can one be sure that the point that is being made can be validated with statistics. Edwin not only pulled the stats he showed you how he got to that conclusion.

It is all well and good saying that there are loads of domainers using the forum and making money directly through the forum, and that they should be giving something back. But with out clear statistics it would be an irrelevant statement.

Edwin and Dale are right - if you make something from the forum you should give something back. May be not the £100 membership fee as the profit may not allow that, but a small donation can not hurt. For those that do make money through the forum regularly, where would you be with out this opportunity.

 

[Edwin]

But with out clear statistics it would be an irrelevant statement.

Exactly. Without the statistics it's just another "it looks", "it seems", "it feels" kind of thread... People are free to dispute my conclusions, of course, but there's no disputing the stats themselves.

 

[scooter]

But Edwin, the real stats are:
1 sales post every 3 days. Per person
Hardly sales flooding, is it?

The stats are:
The same people you accuse, ALL contribute outwith the sales area in the forum. So they all put something back. Which I think is more valuable than money.

For a "Newbie" you have a lot to say on the matter whibs. You know, you don't have to post names for sale to upgrade to exclusive. If you feel so strongly about it, put your money where your mouth is. I look forward to seeing your blue avatar

I'm with admin on this one. The real cheapskates are the ones who do the 5 and 6 figure deals, put nothing back and don't even bother thanking admin never mind maybe giving him a small bit of commision since the deal was done on his forum.

These are the facts.


.

 

[Lovekraft]

Edwin your statistics show threads started by users and you are trying to highlight how many threads are in sales against how many are in other threads. You are forgetting that they may post in other threads as well as start them so are you going to give us a top 10 for that too. Please do, i find it fascinating and it seems to be such a good use of ones time.

Now on this forum we are all domainers and are all into making money so of course the sales threads are going to be busy, they are an integral part of the forum as a lot of us like to sell but also check other peoples threads to buy domains from them. I believe most of us will try and contribute to other parts of the forums too. I don't mind when people bump their threads as often i might have missed it first time around and if it is a discounted bump then even better.

You might boast about managing to have sold 5 domains at over 1k each in the last week, thats great, it really is, you are obviously making nice money and an exclusive membership is obviously affordable for you, doesn't mean it is for everyone else. I have sold a few domains on this forum since i joined (i have sold much more to end users, probably around 90% of my sales) for which i am grateful to admin for providing me the platform to do this, if it amounted to a large amount then i would feel happy to contribute or perhaps pay for an exclusive membership but not because someone starts a thread calling us non exclusive members cheapskates and trying to pressure and guilt trip us into buying an exclusive.

I personally think i post quality domains and i tend to see a decent amount of high quality domains being posted for sale on here at good prices, i don't care if you dont deem other peoples domains to be as of high quality as yours, there is a premium section which by the sounds of things you would be better suited to browsing in if the other sections offend you so much. Other people say they owe their entire business model to this forum, again thats great it has helped you and in return you have made a contribution, but that doesn't apply to everyone, for many this is merely a part time hobby if you like so its not quite the same is it?

It hasn't been made compulsory by admin so why don't you get off your high horse and let people make their own decision as to wether they wish to pay for exclusive, just because some of us do not have one does not mean we are not grateful for this forum. As previously stated if i could afford to do so or if i had made a small fortune from here then i might then feel more obliged to consider it, but as it happens i have a wee one on the way in a few weeks so i really need every penny i have just now without having to feel guilty about posting a few sales threads.

I feel you are just trying to cause division between those who have and those who do not have memberships, it has cast a cloud over the forum and this thread stinks!

 

[Whibs]

For a "Newbie" you have a lot to say on the matter whibs. You know, you don't have to post names for sale to upgrade to exclusive. If you feel so strongly about it, put your money where your mouth is. I look forward to seeing your blue avatar.

I will upgrade when i complete the project i am working on, and that brings me a return. This project will have been accomplished because of the advice i have received through this forum.

Do i need to be a longstanding member to have an opinion? I thought that was the point here, to ask, learn, share experiences and express opinions.

"An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages" Also a fact.

 

[domainseller200]

I feel you are just trying to cause division between those who have and those who do not have memberships, it has cast a cloud over the forum and this thread stinks!

Please don't think everyone who has a membership feels like that, as I can assure you I don't.

I do think this thread was very over the top though, and the thread title which is categorising people under 'Cheap skates, sale flooders and others' is a bit like saying 'Blacks, Pakistanis and other non-whites' to a different group of people - it is a just comes across as an attack or a dig to EVERYONE who doesn't do business in the exact same manner that was outlined / desired in the original post.

I can see Edwin's personal grievances he outlined could annoy him and others, but not everyone has to do business the same way - that is life I am afraid and name calling and trying to belittle people (which ever way it is dressed up) is not the way to win over people to see your way of thinking.

This is the car boot sale of the domain industry - there will always be gems here, but you have to root through a load of crap to find the ones which are worthwhile. If your snobbery gets in the way of the way business is conducted at a car boot sale, then I suggest you go somewhere else a bit upmarket like Harrods, except there isn't one in the domain industry.

Put up or piss off - simple.

 

[Lovekraft]

Please don't think everyone who has a membership feels like that, as I can assure you I don't.

I do think this thread was very over the top though, and the thread title which is categorising people under 'Cheap skates, sale flooders and others' is a bit like saying 'Blacks, Pakistanis and other non-whites' to a different group of people - it is a just comes across as an attack or a dig to EVERYONE who doesn't do business in the exact same manner that was outlined / desired in the original post.

I can see Edwin's personal grievances he outlined could annoy him and others, but not everyone has to do business the same way - that is life I am afraid and name calling and trying to belittle people (which ever way it is dressed up) is not the way to win over people to see your way of thinking.

This is the car boot sale of the domain industry - there will always be gems here, but you have to root through a load of crap to find the ones which are worthwhile. If your snobbery gets in the way of the way business is conducted at a car boot sale, then I suggest you go somewhere else a bit upmarket like Harrods, except there isn't one in the domain industry.

Put up or piss off - simple.

Point well made, i forgot to mention that sometimes i think there are some pretty crap domains being posted for sale too (and maybe others might think some of mines are too, i don't know or really care, people will see value in different domains anf of course some will be better than others) but like you say there are often gems to be found which is part of the fun.

I didn't really want to write such a long winding response, id actually refrained for a couple of days but eventually i wanted to get my point across and i couldn't stop! I just felt a bit like id been ambushed by one of those charity people with the tin who try and block you and then proceed to make you feel guilty for deciding not to give a donation on this occassion leaving you with this out of no where feeling of gullt when your just wanting to get home.